Online gambling will soon be legal in the Netherlands

Legalization of online gambling in the Netherlands – Government budget 2019 counts on tax income from remote gambling

Is the outcome of the upcoming plenary session in the Senate already known? Anonymous sources with insider’s knowledge tell us it is. The recently published government budget for 2019 only makes our suspicion stronger: the bills will be passed by the Senate and online gambling will be legal in the Netherlands starting mid 2020.

Remote games of chance in government budget 2019
The government budget 2019 contains information about the budgetary consequences of legalization of online gambling. On just sports betting, the expected tax revenue is 6 million euro for 2020. The government expects to be raking in 12 million each year starting 2021. Tax revenue from other soon to be legal forms of online gambling (e.g. roulette, bingo and poker) are not included in these numbers yet. In the highly unlikely case of the Senate not passing the bill, the government would be missing out on the calculated tax revenue which can turn out problematic for the concerning ministry: budget cuts or lending more from other ministries may be the result. A time-consuming, labor-intensive process, which makes it extra significant that there is tax revenue from online gambling in the government’s budget planning.

Image Source:rijksbegroting.nl

Legalization remote games of chance
We saw the first signs of the government legalizing online gambling back in 2016, when EK 33.996 was passed by the House of Representatives. With this bill the market monopoly of land bound gambling providers was breached. The Senate will start plenary treatment for this bill on the 5th of Februari 2019. Bill EK 34.471, which ends the government’s monopoly on offering casino games, will go through plenary treatment in the Senate on the same day.

Benefits of modernizing the gambling law
Modernizing the outdated gambling law offers several advantages: extra tax revenue, effective prevention against addiction and ensuring only fair games are offered to the Dutch public. Online gambling is a growing market in the Netherlands: from 1,5 million players in 2016 to 1,8 million players in 2018. Each year the government is missing out on up to 175 million euro in gambling tax revenue.

Effective date
The effective date for the new gambling law will be 1st of July 2020. The law will commence at a by royal decree determined time. Afterwards, the Gaming Authority will need 6 more months to issue the necessary permits to online gambling operators. After this, online gambling will be legal in the Netherlands.

Taxes
TK 35.031 tells us tax liability for both land-based and remote gambling providers will shift from player to gaming provider. Gaming providers will be obliged to hand pay 29% in tax over their ‘gross game result’ (the difference between the received players’ deposits and paid out players’ prizes). In the current system it’s the player who is taxable for other forms of gambling, like sports betting. However, players weren’t taxed on prizes below 449 euro. By taxing the gaming providers instead of the players, a much bigger revenue stream is targeted. Tax revenue is expected to increase significantly under the new bill. In the new gambling law all remote games of chance are treated equal and will pay the same tax rate. This way, all types of online gambling (casino games, poker, sports betting) are given a fair chance.

Source:  Onlinecasinoground.nl